The photograph above is of Leonas "Leo" Radauskas, 1889-1973, my first cousin two times removed on my Guokas (maternal grandfather's) line, and two unknown women. It was taken about 1937.
I'm guessing that the two women might be co-workers from one of the famous hotels or restaurants where Leo worked in Chicago in his long career as a chef. According to an obituary, besides the Edgewater Beach Hotel mentioned in the earlier post about Leo, he also worked at the Morrison, the Imperial, and the Latin Quarter.
The Morrison Hotel, at the southeast corner of Madison and Clark streets downtown, had at least three restaurants - the famous Boston Oyster House, the Terrace Garden dinner theater, and the Grill restaurant. It also had private dining rooms and hosted banquets, so Leo would have been very busy as a chef. This hotel was torn down in 1965-66.
The Latin Quarter at 23 W. Randolph was also a dinner theater restaurant. And the Imperial House was a fancy French restaurant, in Chicago at 50 E. Walton from at least 1952 to at least 1965. According to a May 22, 2002 article in the Chicago Tribune, it "specialized in fresh food, flown from anywhere on the globe, it seemed. Meals were stately affairs, a rear-guard action against the 'speeded up' tempo of American dining, according to Patricia Bronte in her 1952 restaurant guide, Vittles and Vice. The menu offered 85 variations on Caesar salad."
The photo in this post came from the private album of Aldona Radauskaitė Zigmantavičienė, the daughter of Steponas Radauskas, a brother of Leo Radauskas. Thank you Aldona! Thanks also to Osvaldas Guokas, who has been sharing all these photographs and information with me!
© Amanda Pape - 2017 - click here to e-mail me.
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